A man sits in a closed shop during the COVID-19 outbreak, in Milan, Italy, on April 4, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Moscow has rejected claims by European countries that Russian media have been spreading disinformation about the coronavirus epidemic in Europe.

The Russian Embassy in Vienna criticized Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg for claiming that Russia, its allies, and China were spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 epidemic in the Old Continent.

“We are very surprised at the statement made by Alexander Schallenberg… claiming that Russia, its allies and China spread disinformation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the embassy said in a Facebook post, Sputnik reported on Saturday.

The embassy said it was interested in seeing any proof to back the claim, repeating an earlier response made by the Kremlin to the accusations.

“We regret the frequent appearance in the European media, including some Austrian media outlets, of biased, and in some cases absolutely untrue or clearly fabricated mistruths about the situation,” the Russian mission added.

In late March, media cited what they said was a report prepared by the European Union (EU)’s diplomatic service in which a conclusion had been made that pro-Kremlin media were spreading disinformation in an attempt to “aggravate” the already dire coronavirus outbreaks in Western countries.

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” said the report, according to The Guardian, which claimed it had seen it.

The European Commission’s chief spokesperson on foreign and security policy, Peter Stano, also said earlier that there had been an increase in disinformation from Russia since the start of the pandemic.

Moscow has called such accusations “unfounded.”

“If there was even a single concrete example, I could comment on it but once again they are just unfounded allegations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last month.

Nearly 1,203,000 people are infected with the new coronavirus and more than 64,770 others have died of the disease caused by it around the world, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Europe is collectively considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the epicenter of the global pandemic. Italy, Spain, and France in particular have been reporting huge deaths and infection numbers.

Russia has sent medical equipment as well as doctors and nurses to Italy to help Europe’s worst-hit country battle its coronavirus outbreak. While Rome welcomed the assistance, some European diplomats attempted to portray the Russian aid as insincere and a geopolitical signal.

On April 3, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the EU mission in Moscow of spreading disinformation regarding Russia’s aid to Italy.

The WHO said last month that pandemic had also resulted in an “infodemic,” an abundance of information, some of which was accurate and some was not.

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